1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an object management system, a data processing system, a computer-readable medium containing an object management program, and a computer-readable medium containing a data processing program. More Particularly, the present invention relates to an object management system which manages relationships among objects constituting a network system, by using a hierarchical containment tree model. The present invention also relates to a data processing system which operates with objects being organized in a hierarchical structure. The present invention further relates to a computer-readable medium containing an object management program or data processing program designed to cause a computer system to function as the above object management system or data processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Telecommunication Management Network (TMN), a standard developed by the International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication standardization sector (ITU-T), provides a common framework for management of a distributed environment where a plurality of networks are interconnected. This ITU-T recommendation uses layered containment tree models to describe the relationships among objects that constitute a system to be managed. Typical TMN applications may include network management systems (NMS) which manage nodes on a synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) network, for example.
FIG. 41 is a block diagram of a conventional network management system, where two client applications 1100 and 1200 are allowed to make access to shared resources. The two client applications 1100 and 1200 have their own message processors 1110 and 1210 and tree managers 1120 and 1220, respectively. The message processors 1110 and 1210 transmit and receive messages to/from a plurality of resource management objects, or resource managers (RMs) 1131 to 1136, through an interface 1141. Those resource managers 1131 to 1136 control creation and deletion of managed objects (MOs) 1131a to 1136a which execute various processes necessary for operating the network system. Tables 1121 and 1221 in the tree managers 1120 and 1220 provide the message processors 1110 and 1210 with necessary data for resource management (S311 and S321). Based on the retrieved data, the message processors 1110 and 1210 make access to relevant resource management objects 1131 to 1136 to perform desired operations and receive their results (S312 and S322).
The tree managers 1120 and 1220 are responsible for maintaining containment trees 1122 and 1222 which describe the relationships among objects. To this end, each of the tree managers 1120 and 1220 has a resource management information base (RMIB), which is held in the aforementioned tables 1121 and 1221 in a fixed manner. The containment trees 1122 and 1222, produced from such table data, are used to manage communication address information to reach the resource managers 1131 to 1136. Note that, in the prior-art system, the client applications 1100 and 1200 manage their own containment trees 1122 and 1222 independently. When the system is started up or shut down, the resource managers 1131 to 1136 notify both tree managers 1120 and 1220 of creation or deletion of objects (S313 and S323).
The client applications 1100 and 1200 can grasp the relationships among objects by making access to RMIB maintained in their local tables 1121 and 1221. In the prior-art system, however, it is hard to change the containment tree structure since each client application has its own RMIB in a fixed manner. That is, the relationships among objects are determined at the system design phase and client applications include such object relationships when they are developed. Once the system is established in such a way, it is not allowed, basically, to change the containment tree structure to add or remove some resource managers. This means that a large amount of work is necessary to modify the client applications to implement a change in the containment tree.
Again, a plurality of client applications keep their own containment trees, meaning that there exist a plurality of containment trees in a system. To maintain their consistency, resource managers are required to exchange messages to/from those client applications. As client applications and resource managers increase in number, the frequency of their interactions would be raised, thus causing a problem in information traffic.
Taking the above into consideration, an object of the present invention is to provide an object management system which allows the relationships among resource managers to be modified without affecting client applications, and also reduces the amount of information exchanged for object management operations.
Further, it is another object of the present invention to provide a data processing system which allows the relationships among resource managers to be changed without affecting client applications, and also reduces the amount of information exchanged for management operations.
To accomplish the first object note above, according to the present invention, there is provided an object management system which manages the relationships among resource managers that control managed objects by using a hierarchical containment tree model. This system comprises the following elements: a message processor which receives an operation request directed toward one of the resource managers; a tree manager which maintains tree structure data that defines containment relationships among the resource managers, together with identification data that is used to distinguish between the resource managers; and an object manager which examines the tree structure data maintained in the tree manager to find the identification data of a destination resource manager for which the received operation request should be destined, and sends the operation request to the destination resource manager.
To accomplish the second object of the present invention, there is provided a data processing system for managing relationships among a plurality of objects by using a hierarchical containment tree model. This system comprises the following elements: a message processor which receives an operation request directed toward one of the resource managers; a tree manager which maintains tree structure data that defines containment relationships among the resource managers, together with identification data that is used to distinguish between the resource managers; and an object manager which examines the tree structure data maintained in the tree manager to find the identification data of a destination resource manager for which the received operation request should be destined, and sends the operation request to the destination resource manager.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which illustrate preferred embodiments of the present invention by way of example.